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Open the Configure Page

Select Smart Formulas > Configure from the menu. The Configure page is where you create and manage Smart Formulas for the selected organisation. It includes:
  • Smart Formulas tab: Your organisation’s formulas.
  • Award Library tab: Pre-determined awards that can be viewed or copied into your organisation.
  • Settings: The Smart Formula settings panel for source, breaks, ignored types, assessment periods, and holidays.

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Create a Smart Formula

To create a Smart Formula:
  1. Select Smart Formulas > Configure.
  2. Click Create Smart Formula.
  3. Choose how to start:
    • Copy from Award Library: Open the Award Library tab, then copy a pre-determined formula into your organisation.
    • Build with AI Assistant: When enabled for your account, discuss requirements with the assistant to complete the checklist, generate a validated preview, and create a draft only after you confirm. It does not publish or assign the formula.
    • Configure Manually: Create a new blank draft in the editor.
  4. Enter or review the Smart Formula details.
  5. Add or edit rules.
  6. Simulate the output.
  7. Publish the formula when it is ready to assign.

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Build with AI Assistant

Build with AI Assistant is an optional drafting helper for common patterns that match the manual editor checklist:
  1. Employment type (full-time, part-time, or casual)
  2. Ordinary Hours (when worked; base rate applies; days and optional times - all day if times omitted)
  3. Other ordinary hours and multiples
  4. Weekends (Saturday and Sunday)
  5. Daily overtime (hour ranges)
  6. Weekly overtime (when it applies and at what rates)
  7. Public holidays (whether different rates apply)
  8. Anything else
  • A checklist on the page shows each topic as pending, answered, or not needed. Tap suggested replies when they appear, or type your own answer.
  • The assistant asks one topic at a time. It marks a topic as none only after you say that topic is not needed. Weekends are always asked if Saturday/Sunday were not already covered.
  • Allowances are not collected in the AI interview. After the draft is created, add them in the editor.
  • When the checklist is complete, use Generate preview in the chat to review a validated draft preview. The assistant then asks whether to create the draft or make changes.
  • After a preview exists, the checklist collapses into an accordion so you can focus on the preview.
  • You can ask for preview updates directly (for example rename a rule or adjust a rate). The checklist updates in the background and the preview regenerates.
  • When you are happy, choose Create Smart Formula in the chat (or tell the assistant to proceed) to save a draft.
  • The draft keeps a record of the interview (checklist answers, assumptions, and anything left out) so you can open Built with Assistant in the editor and view the interview.
  • Advanced patterns (for example allowances, RDO accrual, leave accrual modifiers, and minimum shift gap) must be finished in the editor. Split rates inside one time window (for example before 6am first 2 hours at one rate, then a higher rate) are supported via minimum and maximum modifiers. If you describe a rate that applies when a shift starts or ends in a time window, the assistant interprets that as Start at or End at automatically.
  • Nothing is saved until you click Create draft on the validated preview.
  • After the draft is created, open the editor, review every rule, then test it in Simulate before publishing.
AI-assisted drafts are not payroll or legal advice. You remain responsible for checking that the draft matches your requirements and that employees are paid correctly.

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Smart Formula Details

The details identify the formula and are used when UpSheets names pay items in Xero.
  • Short name: A short prefix used when naming pay items. Keep it brief so pay item names stay under Xero’s character limits.
  • Code: A code for the formula, such as CUSTOM.
  • Employment type: The employee type the formula applies to.
  • Sector code and sector name: Optional values for separating formulas by area, role, or business unit.
  • Assessment period: The default period used for weekly or multi-week calculations.
UpSheets uses the Short name, Employment type, and optional Sector code as the pay item prefix. The rule name is added after that prefix. Examples: Fields that determine pay item names are locked after a formula has been published. Period and Use next-day rates after midnight remain editable on draft versions. When you change Period, UpSheets checks that the existing rules are valid for the new assessment period before saving.

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Add Rules

Rules define how UpSheets turns an imported timesheet row into one or more Xero timesheet lines. On the Smart Formula editor:
  1. Click Add rule.
  2. Choose the Rule Type.
  3. Set the days, period, rate type, value, and priority.
  4. Save the rule.
See Smart Formula Rules for the available rules and how they are applied.

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Use the Award Library

The Award Library tab provides pre-determined awards that can be used as a starting point. Browse the public supported award pay rates to see rates, overtime rules, and variants before you copy a formula. From the Award Library you can:
  • View a library formula to inspect its rules (click the name or View).
  • Copy a library formula into your organisation from the table, or from the view modal.
  • Edit the copied formula as your own draft before publishing it.
The Award Library is a source of pre-determined awards. Award Library setup details are now covered through the Configure, Simulate, Publish, and Assign process rather than separate Award Library setup pages.

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Manage Existing Formulas

The Smart Formulas table shows the formula name, code, type, sector, number of rules, published version, and draft version. You can:
  • Edit: Open an editable draft or create a draft from a published version.
  • View: Open the published read-only version.
  • Duplicate: Copy an existing formula into the same organisation as a new draft.
  • Copy to Organisation: Copy a formula into another organisation you can access. Only shown when you have more than one organisation (UpSheets admins can use this even when they only have one organisation, and can search any organisation by name or owner email). The copy is created as a new draft in the destination organisation. Publish and assign it there when it is ready. Employee assignments and Xero pay items are not copied.
  • Publish: Publish a draft version so it can be assigned.
  • Archive or restore: Hide a formula from normal use or make it available again.
  • Version history: View previous versions and restore a published version as the current draft.

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Shift Types

Some payroll setups need different daily rules for different shifts (for example day and night) within the same Smart Formula.

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Enable shift types for the organisation

  1. Select Smart Formulas > Configure.
  2. Open Settings.
  3. Turn on Shift types.
When shift types are off, the editor, CSV mapping list, upload editor, and simulator hide shift-type controls. UpSheets still applies shift types saved on a formula at calculation time, so pay does not change silently when the setting is toggled. You cannot turn shift types off while any Smart Formula in the organisation still defines shift types.

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Shift Types on a formula

On an editable draft, select Edit in the Shift Types summary to:
  • Define one or more Shift types (name plus optional start-time window and a default).
The same row includes toggle buttons (Unset plus each type) that filter the Rules table. To see rules relevant to one shift plus rules that apply to every shift, leave Unset and that shift type selected and deselect the others. See Filter rules by shift type. Published versions show these settings read-only. Create a successor draft to change them.

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Limit rules to shift types

When a formula has shift types, use the Shift Types multi-select after Priority on supported rules. All applies to every shift. Weekly overtime rules and weekly allowances cannot be limited to a shift type. Imported or manually edited timesheet rows can include an optional Shift type value. UpSheets matches names case-insensitively. If the row is blank, the formula uses the start-time window (when set) or the default shift type. See Shift Types for setup instructions, selection behaviour and examples.

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Start Period Only and End Period Only

When you add a rule, choose Start Period Only or End Period Only to apply that rate when the shift starts or ends inside the rule’s time window (the editor may label these shift start only or shift end only). Times on the paid line are the segment’s start and end, not the whole shift: for a night shift 18:00 to 04:30 with ordinary time capped at 7.6 hours, Night Ordinary shows 18:00 to 01:36. An unpaid break during ordinary time extends the ordinary end, keeps paid ordinary hours unchanged, and reduces overtime; a break only in overtime reduces overtime without moving the ordinary end.

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Next-Day Rates After Midnight

In Smart Formula Details, beneath Period, enable Use next-day rates after midnight when hours after midnight should use the following calendar day’s rates. This setting is available with or without shift types. See Next-Day Rates for setup, daily hour-band behaviour and examples.

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Next Steps

After configuring a Smart Formula:
  1. Simulate the formula with sample timesheet lines.
  2. Publish the formula.
  3. Assign the formula to employees.